POPULATION: 120 (2006)
LOCATION: On Anchorage Bay on the south shore of the Alaska Peninsula, 260 miles southwest of Kodiak, 450 miles southwest of Anchorage.
DESCRIPTION: A community with a mixture of non-Natives (about 40 percent of the inhabitants) and Alutiiq. Typical of villages in this region, commercial fishing and subsistence activities are the mainstays of the economy; 16 residents have commercial permits. Two fish processing plants, Norquest Adak and Trident Seafoods, process salmon, herring roe, halibut, cod and crab. From 600 to 800 people come to Chignik each summer to fish or work in the plants. There is one school, attended by about a dozen students.
HISTORY: A village called Kalwak was originally located here, then destroyed during the Russian fur boom in the late 1700s. Chignik, meaning "big wind," was established in the late 1800s as a fishing village and cannery. A four-masted sailing ship, the Star of Alaska, transported workers and supplies between Chignik and San Francisco. Chinese crews from San Francisco traveled to Chignik in early spring to make tin cans for the cannery. Japanese workers came in mid-June to begin processing. A post office was established in 1901. Coal mining occurred from 1899 to 1915. Two of the historical canneries are still in operation.
